Spencer Tweedy

The Onion: Plan To Start Little Stationery Store Too Sad For Bank To Deny Loan

Del Toro’s Frankenstein:

“The hunter did not hate the wolf. The wolf did not hate the sheep. But violence felt inevitable between them.” (The Creature)

“Forgive. Forget. The true measure of wisdom. To know you have been harmed, by whom you have been harmed, and choose to let it all fade.” (The Blind Man)

54 Crosby Street

Towards the end of the 1970s, Di Modica bought 54 Crosby Street, a vacant lot not far from his first studio. After tearing down the original shack, he built a new building using salvaged materials, completely to his own design and without planning permission. Among the materials he used were seven-meter beams of timber that he attached to himself and dragged back to Crosby Street through the streets at night, as well as 8,000 bricks that he bought for $400 from a priest. He would then go on to add two underground levels, again without the necessary permission, covertly removing the rubble under the cover of darkness. Crosby Street would become his creative center, where he lived, worked and hosted lively art parties and events.

Via The Decline of Deviance

New post: Tennessee Bass Bumping

In talking, you wanna go slow enough to only say things you mean to say.
In musicking, you wanna go fast enough to say things you didn’t know you wanted to say.

Cory Arcangel made a cool video for Oneohtrix Point Never.

Who needs junk food when there are cucumbers with a fanciful pinch of Maldon salt on them? I mean really?

We used to be able to tell computers what to do. Now they make stuff up.

A few weeks ago I learned about charge pumps. And they sounded to me like a zillion fresh starts strung together, increasing your ability to do work.

We opened a door and Charlie Chaplin slithered out from behind it. (A cardboard cutout folded and fell down.)

Liam and I saw a fucking armadillo! Making its nighttime rounds in New Orleans.

This book cover made me audibly say “wow.”

From Paul I learned to use detergents and cleaning sprays more liberally.

I pay close attention to my snot.

Pop Tarts

If the world were ending tomorrow
I’d eat some Pop Tarts

Oliver Burkeman: You have to do the living yourself

I don’t mean to suggest … that environmental or pharmacological tools have no role to play in behaviour change. … Willpower has severe limits; you can’t reliably use it to power through problems that are emotional at their core. … And yet … There seems to be something crucial about … actively committing and recommitting, again and again, to going in the direction you want to travel, instead of acting as a spectator to your life, watching to see whether the systems you’ve put in place perform as you’d hoped they would or not.

Eleanor Friedberger:

If you’re not in that gathering mode, you won’t be making anything. It’s easy to flip the switch and say “I’m in gathering mode,” but you have to mean it.

Regulate online markets

To operate smoothly, economies have long depended on essential platforms, be they city markets, Main Streets or infrastructure like railroads and bridges. … Historically, the government has imposed limits on how much money the platforms could take from the people and businesses that relied on them … These limits were imposed not to constrain economic growth but to foster it: They protected the incentives for other economic actors to invest and build on the platforms. …

Last year, Amazon charged private sellers, on average, between 50 and 60 percent of their sales in fees, according to the research firm Marketplace Pulse. You don’t need a degree in economics to see how that can discourage investment and innovation. … It’s effectively a system of private taxation.

Mowed the lawn on a show day.

Rob Walker:

The traditional goal [in customer service call centers] is to handle calls as quickly as possible — if there’s even a number for customers to call at all … Uniqlo has flipped this idea on its head, treating the call center as a site of R&D, inspiration, and opportunities they otherwise would have overlooked.

Can someone remind me how to write a newsletter again?

I didn’t think I would like Blade but I loved Blade.

Recommended: B-grade pencils.

I look at all my loves sideways.

I bought some vegan Blundstones.

I realized my to-do list was upside-down.

I had admin work at the top, daily routines in the middle, and creative hunches/dreams/plans at the bottom.

The first list keeps your house running, the second list keeps your hair from catching fire, and the last list gets you up in the morning. Why would the list that gets you up in the morning be last?

Depression isn’t a choice but being a sorry son of a bitch sorta is.

(See also: Keep On the Sunny Side.)